Exploring gender & climate justice in the LGBTQIA+ community & their experiences

The webinar aimed to examine the emerging challenges at the intersection of climate change and gender equality, focusing on how marginalised persons within the LGBTQIA+ community are disproportionately impacted. It also aimed to conceptualise an understanding of “women in all their diversity” and how the socio-economic, religious, cultural and political contexts in which they exist limit their access to climate responsive services and finance. Research conducted by Seglah, H A & Blanchard, K (2021) on LGBTQIA+ People and Disasters indicates that “this marginalisation has also been reported in the disaster response phase, with people within the LGBTQIA+ community being discriminated against and not receiving the appropriate aid and assistance. Despite some work being done at an international level to recognise diverse gender and sexual minorities in human rights (see the Yogyakarta Principles (2007) and the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 (2017)) the very limited success and implementation of this work has allowed for their exclusion from key international disaster policy instruments (Barbelet and Wake, 2020)."

The webinar also attempted to explore climate change through an intersectional lens, looking deeper at what climate justice entails for women and girls in all their diversity, as well as emphasized the need for gender-sensitive approaches in addressing the unique needs of women within the LGBTQIA+ community and improving greater access to finance for marginalised groups. These topics were explored through centering the voices of the most impacted, grounding the importance of storytelling, capacity building, access to finance and transforming masculinities as pillars of inclusive and gender responsive climate action.

The webinar also set the stage for the SAEDI Consulting Barbados Inc. Parallel Event at the NGO CSW66 Forum on Gender Responsive Resourcing for Climate Resilience Action.